Buy at AmazonThe best travel mugs have great heat and cold retention; they’re also lightweight and easy to open, fill, close, and hold. The Zojirushi Stainless Mug SM-SHE48 is a stellar performer, keeping hot drinks hot for 10 hours and cold drinks cold for at least 6. And it’s incredibly easy to use and hold, with a handy locking mechanism that prevents the top from popping open accidentally.
Want something that will hold just your cold beverages? Check out our review of water bottles or our review of insulated tumblers.
Whether it’s hot coffee for your commute, ice-cold water for your workout, or cool rosé for your leisurely picnic, travel mugs are ideal for keeping your favorite beverage at its proper temperature. Unlike water bottles, travel mugs can safely hold both hot and cold beverages, and unlike insulated tumblers, travel mugs have more moderate capacities and are less likely to leak, so they’re easy to stash in a bag and take with you on the go.
Made from metal and usually featuring a double-walled design for superior insulation, these travel mugs are generally lightweight and durable, though not impervious to damage—while they’re unlikely to break, they can certainly dent or get scratched if you drop them, as all the models in our review did. These travel mugs are also susceptible to retaining odors; while the bare metal itself is unlikely to retain odors from coffee or other beverages, most mugs have silicone or plastic parts that will hang on to those scents.
What Size Travel Mug Should I Get?
Travel mugs come in a variety of sizes. For this review, we focused on models that held about 16 ounces, the most common size, though a few came only in slightly larger sizes. We hope to review larger options soon, though we think most people will find 16 ounces to be plenty of room for the majority of beverages they choose to drink out of these vessels.
What Are the Different Styles of Travel Mugs?
There are many different types of travel mugs. For this review, we avoided models with handles, as we’ve found that these get in the way when the mugs are placed in car cupholders. (We hope to expand the review to include models in this style within the next few years, however, as we recognize that they’re popular.) Instead, we examined travel mugs with a range of features. Some let you drink directly from an opening in the lid. Others have lids that cover a drinking spout. And still others require you to unscrew the lid entirely to drink from the rim of the base.
Most of the mugs we tested had screw-on tops that threaded snugly onto the base, preventing leaks.
One model had a top that simply pushed into place; when we dropped this mug, the lid popped back off, leaking the contents.
What to Look For
- Leakproof Screw-on Lids: We preferred travel mugs that didn’t leak or burst open when dropped. Mugs with lids that screwed onto their bases securely were much more leakproof than those that relied on rubber gaskets to hold their lids in place. Even when those gaskets are pretty strong and otherwise leakproof, there’s still a risk that the lid will pop off if you drop the full mug, as we observed with one model.
- Good Heat and Cold Retention: A good travel mug should keep your hot drinks hot and your cold drinks cold for a reasonable amount of time. Although opinions vary on the best temperature for hot coffee, we deemed coffee below 130 degrees to be tepid and less pleasant to drink. Serving temperature aside, we also considered food safety. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service doesn’t recommend drinking coffee and many other beverages if they’ve been in the danger zone (from 40 to 140 degrees Fahrenheit) for more than 2 hours, as bacteria can grow to a critical level after that point. To evaluate how long the mugs could keep hot drinks at an acceptable serving temperature and still safe to drink, we poured coffee directly from the coffee maker carafe (a starting temperature of 174 degrees) into the mugs and tracked their temperatures over a full day. Happily, all the travel mugs were able to keep the coffee hot and safe to drink for at least 3.5 hours—plenty of time to commute to work or go on a good-length hike. But some mugs performed even better, extending that time up to 10.5 hours. The mugs were just as good at keeping cold drinks cold. Most models kept iced coffee both cold and safe to drink for 3 to 4 hours—more than enough time for us to enjoy it, though our two top performers did even better, lasting 6 hours.
- Narrow Bases with Moderate-Size Openings: We liked models with slim bases and fairly narrow openings that measured about 1.5 to 2 inches in diameter. Although we had to aim carefully when pouring coffee or water into these smaller openings, mugs that were narrower were more comfortable for hands of all sizes to grasp and fit into car cupholders, backpacks, and tote bags equally well. Moreover, we found that the smaller tops on these narrow mugs were easier to screw on and off their bases than larger tops were. (As our senior science research editor explained, smaller tops have less surface area coming in contact with the base than larger tops do and generate less friction as they’re screwed on.) Mugs with wider openings of 2.5 inches or more made it easier to pour coffee into the mugs, but they came with wide tops that were harder for even larger hands to span, grip, and unscrew. Their corresponding wide bases were harder to grasp securely and didn’t always fit into cupholders.
Mugs with wide openings (left) were easier to pour into, since they provided larger targets for our coffee. Their downsides? They were also harder for smaller hands to grip, close, and reopen.
- Enclosed Drinking Spouts: We preferred models with drinking spouts that were entirely enclosed by hinged lids, as they stayed cleaner than models with exposed drinking holes for sipping. Even when exposed drinking holes were closed off, they collected liquid and dust, which made them less pleasant to drink from when they were open.
- Easy, Intuitive One-Handed Operation: We preferred models that can be opened effortlessly with one hand, allowing you to safely drink from them while holding onto a steering wheel or subway pole with the other hand. Some models had opening mechanisms that either required two hands to operate or were fussy and hard to operate; while these weren’t necessarily deal-breakers, they made it tougher to get to the coffee or water we wanted. Testers universally hated one model, which required them to press a button continuously in order to keep the drinking hole clear so that liquid could flow through it; the button itself was stiff and a pain to keep depressed. Another model had a lid that had to be twisted to expose the drinking hole, but because of the way the lid was designed, we often ended up twisting off the entire top. We appreciated mugs that had simple opening mechanisms; on several of our top models, an effortless press of a button is all it takes to flip up the hood and expose the enclosed spout.
The mugs we liked best were the easiest to open: Just press a button and the lid pops up, as shown here with our favorite model by Zojirushi.
- Light Weight: We slightly preferred mugs that weighed less than 10 ounces, and the lighter the mug was, the easier it was to carry, especially when filled to capacity.
- Locking Mechanism: These prevented lids from flying open by accident and spilling our drinks into a bag or cupholder. Models that lacked this locking feature gave us pause; we’d think twice before throwing any of them haphazardly into a bag.
The Tests
- Test eight insulated, stainless-steel travel mugs, priced from about $12 to about $33, all with capacities from 16 to 20 ounces
- Check for leaks at the beginning and end of testing by filling each mug with water and turning it upside down five times
- Track each mug’s heat retention, using coffee poured straight from coffee maker carafe
- Track each mug’s cold retention, using cold coffee poured straight from the refrigerator
- Fill with water and drop from counter height five times
- Open and close the top and the opening mechanism 100 times
- Wash 10 times according to the manufacturer’s instructions
How We Rated
- Durability: We rated the mugs on how well they withstood damage, including scrapes, dents, and breakage.
- Ease of Use: We evaluated the mugs on how easy they were to hold, open, close, fill, and lock (where applicable).
- Performance: We rated the mugs on how well they maintained hot and cold temperatures.
- Leak Resistance: We rated the mugs on how leakproof they were.
